December 09, 2024

Illustration: Sang Pak

Back in 2019, around this time of year, we asked 130 people who we thought had exacting, interesting taste to reveal the gifts they were most excited to give with a max budget of $100. Ever since, the resulting list has stood as a document that we, as editors and writers, return to for inspiration year after year — even as lots of things have sold out or been discontinued. So this year, we decided to do the exercise all over again but with an even lower price limit of just $50. From architect Elizabeth Roberts’s $24 Italian stapler (“when I first opened my architecture studio, I bought one of these in every color for each desk in my office”) to the Japanese stainless-steel beer koozie that Puck’s Lauren Sherman favors, these gifts should should go a long way toward checking off any still-unchecked people on your list. (And if, for whatever reason, they do not, we have hundreds of additional gift ideas right here.) 

Also on the site: a $17 backup wedding ring, nine good digital picture frames, and gifts for Carpenters (no, the other kind of carpenters). Lastly, join us tomorrow on Reddit! Writer Dominique Pariso will be hosting an AMA at 11 a.m. ET and is waiting to solve all your gifting conundrums. 

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“I first got a box of this chocolate four or five years ago from a friend. I ate the whole box in, like, a day and a half. I thought it was this fancy chocolate from Switzerland, but he just got it in Soho. Ever since, I’ve been obsessed. If someone cut me, I would bleed this chocolate. It just has the best flavor. You actually taste the milk chocolate or dark chocolate. My favorite is the little mice. They are so cute. This is the perfect gift for me, and it’s something I keep stock of to gift other people.” —Ubah Hassan 

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